Promoting Social Responsibility through Multi-Sensory Integration

Perception of Poverty

Promoting Social Responsibility through Multi-Sensory Integration.

Perception of Poverty utilizes multi-sensory integration of sight, sound and scent to raise awareness of poverty in the United States, explore the effects of the great recession and allow viewers to digitally experience homelessness. Viewers experience the contrast of the three basic human needs of shelter, food and clothing.

Our hope is to give viewers a new appreciation on life, inspire individuals to take action and effect change in their community.

Abstract

Traditional graphic design and marketing rely heavily on visuals as a form of communication. The heavy use of visuals in our communication has led to an over stimulated market, resulting in a challenge for designers to capture an audience's attention. Multi-sensory integration overcomes this challenge by integrating more than one sense. Multi-sensory integration within the context of communication is more effective and memorable in my opinion, because it compliments the core message through multiple senses. The integration of additional senses within the field, particularly olfactory in my opinion, would help enhance the overall communication and user experience.

The objective of this thesis is to utilize multi-sensory integration to raise awareness of poverty in the United States, explore the effects of the great recession and allow viewers to digitally experience homelessness. The intention is to give viewers a new appreciation on life, inspire individuals to take action and effect change in their community.

Research

According to National Bureau of Economic Research, the United States suffered a significant decline in economic activity resulting in the great recession, which lasted from December 2007 to June 2009. Following the recession, many United States citizens still faced unforeseen financial crisis, sudden loss of income and housing foreclosure. The impact of the recession continues today, causing suffering and severe crisis. As a result of the severe crisis, many families and individuals found themselves newly poor.

Facts

According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness, currently in the United States there are 643,067 people experiencing poverty on any given night; roughly 22 of every 10,000 people are impoverished. Of that number, 238,110 are people in families and 404,957 are individuals, 17% of the impoverished population are considered "chronic" and 12% of the impoverished population are made up of veterans.